Democracy In America Is a Series Of Narrow Excapes, and We May Be Running Out Of Luck

Democracy In America Is a Series Of Narrow Excapes, and We May Be Running Out Of Luck

www.commondreams.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

Man, is this ever a fantastic, and TIMELY read.

We truly are at a crossroads as a nation. The entire "system" of democracy itself is in danger of perishing, as our gov becomes evermore transparently corporatized and militarized.

There is no longer much difference between the monopolistic parties, or the elitist-selected puppets that the corporations, M.I.C. and Private Bankers, i.e. the people who REALLY rule over us "choose" for us as a selection of our "leaders".

And the corporate sponsored and controlled media is doing its job for these people to keep us in this trap of sham elections and perpetuating oppression as a nation.

The rabbit hole runs so deep that finding the bottom may be an excersize in futility.

But one thing's for certain, never before has our nation been in such danger of losing its democracy COMPLETELY, to a system and individuals propegated and motivated by pure greed, wealth and power grabs, and complete apathy towards the "little people" that comprise this nation.

I hope we can find a way to turn this around before there's no turning back. But it is the ultimate uphill battle we face in these modern times.





www.commondreams.org
(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 17-5-2008 by DimensionalDetective]

Democracy has been a sham for a long time, it's an illusion designed to make us think we have a say. But as you point out it's all rigged in their favour.

A good blatant example of how our votes count, when they have no way of rigging the vote, is the blatant ignoring of the peoples choice to vote yes on prop 215 by the feds. Your 'democracy' at work.

Those that have the power to control are eventually going to abuse it.
How long have 'they' been in power now, a couple of thousands of yrs or so. If people really think our system of government is honest and fair they are living in the land of naivety...

When they say 'we the people' they don't mean us...

Sorry, but I am not buying that garbage.
America will be fine. There have always been times throughout American history when times looked bleek but we always come out stronger.

reply to post by WhatTheory

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If by 'bleak' you're just talking about the economy then you're missing 90% of what's going on.

Nowhere in the history of the U.S. has the times been like they are now.
If you look at history very carefully you can see the pattern quit clearly, that there is a slow but deliberate progression towards totalitarian control. Whether this is deliberate or a natural result of our actions is debatable, but the inevitable outcome will be the same.

Personally I believe society has been very deliberately pointed towards a direction that will ultimately enslave itself in a system that produces in abundance, but owns nothing of its production. A system that is set up to make people a world of willing servants, who do their masters bidding; and then pay them for the privilege of it.

How clever they are.

Since I am not just talking about the economy, I am missing nothing. The way things are today is not unique.

reply to post by WhatTheory

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Hmmmmm, well sry but if you don't see the patterns that show the inevitability of what our western 'system' will bring upon us, then you are missing something...

Class struggle has been with us since day one. *sigh* and seeing as the controlling classes have most of the worlds resources at their disposal it is no wonder that they have convinced so much of the population of their importance to our own survival and happyness [sic]...
What happened to class struggle? Did we all give up? Are you chasing carrots?

Who's side you on? Which is your leader? Which is your flock? Who is your master?

Sorry, but I'm not buying what you are selling.
Our western system has made us the superpower and has given us our awesome way of life.

reply to post by ANOK

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I agree with you ANOK.

The US is going through an extraordinary period of time, but not in a good way.

Civil liberties have never been curtailed to such an extent ever before.

The PATRIOT act, the nullification of posse commitatus, voting machines used to rig elections etc etc...

It is quite clear that America needs some sort of saviour to bring it back from the brink. Im not quite sure who this person or group is, but no doubt they are needed now more than ever before... they shall be the Minutemen of the 21st century.

Actually no it hasn't. If it was left up to our so called government, which is a western power, then we would still have segregation, there would be no education for lower classes, women would not be able to vote, the UK would have had poll tax in the 90's, blah blah blah.

I could list thousands of things that give you an 'awesome way of life' (lucky you), that were fought for by the lower classes and grudgingly allowed by those in control. But those in control love to take the credit...All the good we get is a fight against those in control.
You just don't see the fight, because those in control also control what you get to see about the world around you.

'Awesome way of life' Could you explain that for me? What's so 'awesome'? Consumerism? The 40 er 50 er 60 hour week? The murder rate? The jail population? The war on drugs? The war on terror? The stress level to keep up? The flagging economy? Daddies ranch?

BTW I'm not selling anything, for you this is free. If you'd care to look you would have to be blind, or dense, to not see what has been happening throughout history, and what continues to happen ever more escalated, until....

[edit on 17/5/2008 by ANOK]

You are entitled to your wrong opinion but actually, yes it has.

reply to post by WhatTheory

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OK, well I just offered my reason why I believe you're wrong, can you not do the same and give your reason why you think you're right? Or are you just going to stamp your feet and keep saying yes it is, yes it is!

Do you really think all the good we have accomplished is because of our 'system'? Haven't I already shown that what we have has been fought for by ordinary and often underprivileged people, against the 'system'?
If the 'system' is so great for us why would we have to fight it to get ahead?

You know our system actually holds us back, stunts our growth?
If you think this is a 'wonderful life' then you have little imagination beyond the life you have so easily given over to the 'system'...

So many things that could help us are either ignored or suppressed because of our 'system'...

Therapies & Disease Prevention Ignored or suppressed

Suppressed Technology Could Eliminate Toxic Car Fumes

Suppressed Energy Technologies

When you start to realise what we could have the world doesn't look so wonderful...

You know what, I can pretty much do anything I want to do. I can say what I want to, work where I want to, not work if I want it that way, I can buy, sell , or trade without needing permission from any agency, I can save my money or I can spend my money, and on whatever I wish to. I can leave my house, my city, my state, my country, at any time I wish. I can drive, walk, use public transportation, or ride with a friend, hell I can hitch a ride if I want. I can buy or cook whatever foods please me and mine. If I want to boat, fish, camp, swim, hunt, vacation, see a movie, or any other form of entertainment, I do it, on my terms and when I want. Yeah, I am pissed about the price of gas, and foods, but I am not starving and I am not without gas. My point is, I feel that I have all the rights and freedoms that I need and want, I mean, somebody tell me what more could you ask for???? I feel I am intelligent enough to know that my life is good, my state is great, my country is awesome, I am happy, and not living on the edge of disaster or hunger, what is wrong with all that? Jeez Loweez, America is Great, Bush sucks , but America, I love it!

reply to post by WhatTheory

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I am with you Whattheory, and it is not that I am settling for what I am given, I am given every opportunity to be who and what I want to be. It is wonderful to live in a country that affords you that choice.

Again I ask, somebody tell me what you think I am missing as a citizen of the United States, the greatest country in the world! What has my government taken from me? What have they done that has affected or suppressed my personal life over others?

reply to post by space cadet

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What you are missing is that you can be labeled a Domestic Terrorist and lose every Constitutional Right you have. Hasn't happened yet? They came for the ..... First and I said nothing. Then they came for the ...... and I said nothing. Finally, they came for ME, and I wondered how this came to be.

Are you really? Or do you just not know anything beyond what you're given, or expected to do?

When you dig into what it's really all about how can you still claim everything is wonderful? It's OK to be positive about things and see the good in things, but we're ignoring or refusing to see how really corrupt our 'system' is and how much better things could be.

If everyone just excepted their lot, then as I have pointed out you would not have what you have know. You should never get apathetic and complacent with your lot, we should always strive for improvement, don't you think?

Your 'wonderful life' is an illusion. You don't know what life is...

Here we go with another copy and paste article from a biased blog posted to Breaking Alternative News.

In this case, it's an excerpt from Bill Moyers' latest book.

This news is so breaking that Bill Moyers' had time to write a book about it.

More drivel from the shameless.

I love how so many people like to take the last 8 years that Bush has been in office and try to apply it to the progression of the U.S. as an example. We are in a slump no one will disagree with that, but our current problems will soon be on the mend. We have never had a president in office that was as mentally deficient as G.W Bush. He had 2 companies HANDED to him and proceeded to dump them down the drain the same way he has Fu*&ed up the US. To many fatalists are on here crying for the end of the US the end of mankind, the end of times. Well things get bad and have to get worse before they get better, this is worse and things will get better. Democracy is still intact, and will be, there is a reason the US has risen to power in our short peroid of time as a country, so it works very well, some people in office choose not to follow the rules though and then we have a situation like the one now . I am excited about the upcoming elections and anyone we get in office will do a better job than Bush...even if they try not to. Oil is Bush's thing and gas prices will go back down when he is out, it may take some time but don't be so quick to jump on the fatalist band wagon.

reply to post by Stumpy1

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Problem is, none of them understands Economics any better than him. Trillions of debt is still Trillions of debt regardless of who you put in office. They will either face reality and/or start wars. Neither will be good for US.

reply to post by HimWhoHathAnEar

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They came for the Indians first, and I said nothing, then they came for the black slaves and I said nothing, then they came for the whites who owned slaves and I said nothing, then they came for the Chinese enslaved to work for the railroads and I said nothing, then they came for the Irish and I said nothing, then they came for the Italian mafia and I said nothing, then they came for the Japanese and I said nothing, then they came for the hippies and I said nothing, do you see a pattern here? All groups of people widely persecuted in the history of this nation by the government, all well before my time here on Earth... If the Patriot Act is such a great threat against democracy, then whatever it is you're trying to rpotect was dead shortly after this country was formed, my friend, because history proves a continuous assault on the so-called civil liberties of at least one group of people at all times throughout the history of the USA and we've come out the other side after each one just fine. This will be no different. Perhaps in 50 or 75 years, history will be re-written (as it has been so many times) to gel with your viewpoint and students in America will be taught about those poor, downtrodden, persecutued anti-Americans that were discriminated against by Bush's Patriot Act... but I doubt it.

This country has a rich, robust history of stampeding over the Constitution when needed, and nothing Bush has done so far has even come close to being the worst offenses history has seen committed against her. Prohibition, for example... I'd say being tossed in jail for enjoying an alcoholic bevarage is right up there, considering it was perfectly legal through 1919. In fact, so unconstitutional was prohibition, the Congress recognized the only way to beat the Constitution was to make it an ammendment... has the Patriot Act been made an ammendment yet? Hmm? Oh, that's right... it has not.

Franklin Roosevelt... my God man, if we survived FDR with the Constitution intact, then dealing with a featherweight like Bush is cake walk. The man attempted to pass a law that would have allowed him to basically hand select the entire Supreme Court to help get every unconstitutional provision of his New Deal upheld as the law of the land. He bypassed the traditional two term limit, forcing a constitutional ammendment to ensure no future president could do so again. HE CONFISCATED GOLD, FOR CHRIST SAKE!!! Not to mention the interment of every Japanese-American through the war. Again I say, if democracy survived that real, concrete assault then the arguable at best "attack" you believe it is under today is like throwing a handfull of dirt at a runaway train. It simply isn't even in the same league, dude.

I look around and I see actual muslim Americans walking amongst us. Find anyone who was alive during WWII and ask them how many Japanese they saw walking free then, if you would. I hear scores of people (believe me when I say "scores," I have the pleasure of working in the greater Seattle area, home of the largest collection of whiney fear mongering imbeciles on the planet.) speaking out against the government without any comeuppance being carried out against them by said government... I wonder what would have happened to those same folks during the McCarthy era, or during Woodrow Wilson's Sedition Act, or when the US Supreme Court upheld imprisonment of war protestors during Vietnam citing draft card burning as a punishable offense, or when the Supreme Court upheld numerous obscenity laws that imprisoned people for distributing pictures that today could probably be shown on Nikolodeon (She's showing 3 inches of leg, Mildred! It's obscene, I tell you!!!) I hear claims of unprecidented police brutallity... but then I ask myself what the average black man in America, circa the 50's would have to say about that, or if he'd even have the time to ponder such a question between fleeing from the police dogs that were chasing him and the fire hoses that were trained on him... or maybe the students on the campus of Kent State University might be able to add something valuable to that conversation... perhaps even one of the thousands of small business owners who watched the federal government ransack and destroy their entire store & warehouse simply because it was rumored that they may be selling bootleg whiskey during the 20's.

And I hear so many people saying the economy has never been as bad as it is today... it really makes me imagine what someone who lived during the great depression, when food was so scarce even the very wealthy in some areas couldn't feed their family would have to say... or I wonder about the experiences of the deep South following the Civil War when entire cities were left virtually stone broke and watched their land divided and given away while their own children starved to death at their feet... or I ponder the energy crisis of 1979, when the average price of a gallon of gas, when adjusted to 2008 dollars was almost $5 a gallon at it's peak.

Needless to say, I believe democracy is very much alive and well, as is the future of the United States. We've faced challenges and trials that, even if I was to take the tremendous leap needed to see the current situation as an attack on our system, make life today look like a walk in the park. Our freedoms are robust and our Constitution is alive and well, regardless of the naysayers and those who like to cry wolf at every turn.